Technology, science and preservice teachers: Creating a culture of technology savvy elementary teachers
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Authors
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference, 2002 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA ISBN 978-1-880094-44-0
Abstract
Technology, science and preservice teachers: Creating a culture of technology savvy elementary teachers Rose Pringle, Kara Dawson & Skip Marshall Introduction There is no doubt that technology has strongly influenced the course of history and the nature of human society. Schooling has also been influenced by this increasing wave of new technologies. As a result, both science and technology educators have articulated the importance of understanding such technological advances and their relevance to teaching and learning in general and science in particular. In an article discussing the implications of science and technology interaction on scientific literacy, Cajas (2001) commends the science education community in taking a strong step toward including technology studies as part of science education by selecting and clarifying specific technological concepts and processes relevant for scientific literacy. The National Science Education Standard (NRC, 1996) recommends that technology in the classroom should provide opportunities for students to investigate science content beyond superficial levels, establish connections between the natural and designed worlds and provide students with opportunities to develop decision-making abilities. This is supported by the recommendations of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the National Educational Technology standards (NETS) that seek to define standards for integrating curriculum, technology and technology support. NCATE stipulates students at the preservice and graduate levels in teacher education are prepared as 21st century teachers. They should be able to design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners. As the debate surrounding technology and its role in teaching and learning intensifies, and as technology becomes more pervasive in society and more available in schools, the focus is on teacher educators to prepare preservice teachers with the capabilities to effectively integrate technology into their teaching. Many possibilities exist for the integration of educational technology into the curriculum and most content-specific governing bodies include statements related to effective technology integration (Churma,1999). The purpose of this study was to determine whether collaboration between methods courses influence preservice teachers' readiness to incorporate the use of technology in teaching elementary science and the types of technology chosen. With the goal of creating a group of technologically savvy elementary teachers, both the technology and science educators collaborated intensively during the 2001 spring semester as the students were enrolled in their courses. In this study we explore the extent to which our collaborative efforts impacted the preservice teachers' attempt at technology use during their microteaching activities, an assignment in the methods courses. In our presentation we will discuss the model of collaboration between the technology and science education courses and share the preservice teachers' efforts during their micro teaching activities as they integrate computers and other related technologies in the teaching of science. Data sources included the self-reflection profile, instructor observations and informal interviews with participants who chose to have individual post-discussions. Rigorous content analysis occurred as we examined the students' words and actions, searched for patterns and meanings (Maykut and Moorehouse, 1994) and categorized the students' activities in a variety of ways to understand their perspectives on science knowledge, and technology integration. The Program As a program requirement, preservice elementary teachers participated in microteaching activities. In pairs, they planned and implemented a thirty-minute lesson for a grade level of their choice that correlated with the Florida Sunshine State Standards. These lessons were taught to their classmates and observed by the science and technology instructors, who along with their peers provided feedback on lesson development, use of technology, content, questioning and classroom organization strategies. Upon completion of the activity students complete a "Reflection Profile" commenting on their experiences, the use of the technology and suggestions for improvement. This allowed the students to document their initial plans, observations during teaching, reflections on their practice and suggestions for improving their practice. Findings and Discussion Our goal was to explore the impact that intensive collaboration between technology and science education courses would have on the preservice teachers implementation of a science lesson during their microteaching exercises. Embracing technology as a wide range of artifacts, systems, environments and procedures created to satisfy human need (Benenson, 2001), it was clear that the students gave much consideration to their use in their teaching. Students used the technologies in a variety of ways, ranging from simple power point presentations to the use of computer simulations, resources for content and spreadsheets for data recording, analysis and constructing graph. They reported that they had developed some level of comfort with using technology in their teaching. In part, they had developed an appreciation for technology as a tool to facilitate the learning of science. These results also offer clues and direction related to efforts to sensitize and expose pre service teachers to the use of technology in teaching. In addition, further analysis suggests that the preservice teachers were beginning to value the use of computer technology in teaching science in elementary classroom because of the nature of their courses and as they began to understand the benefits of technology to their own learning. Conclusion The study provided support for collaboration between content-specific and technology educators during teacher education program to initiate students' use of technology. Preservice teachers engaged in the use of technology, as a teaching tool in their own learning and re enforced during a formal technology course will tend to accommodate new perspectives on the use of technology in their teaching. However, a crucial and obvious component to incorporating technology advances in the classroom is to ensure that they are comfortable and knowledgeable with its use as a tool to facilitate learning. The development of a cadre of teachers armed with the capabilities to effectively integrate technology into the teaching of science in elementary schools will require the integration of technology into the science education course. References Benenson, G. (2001). The unrealized potential of everyday technology as a context for learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, vol. 38, 730-745. Cajas, F. (2001). The science/technology interaction: Implications for science literacy. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, vol. 38, 715-729. Churma, M. (1999). A guide to integrating technology standards into the curriculum. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Maykut, P. & Moorehouse, R. (1994). Beginning qualitative research: A philosophic and practical guide. Philadelphia, PA:The Falmer Press. National Research Council (1996). National science education standards. Washington, D.C.:National Academy Press.
Citation
Dawson, K., Marshall, S. & Pringle, R. (2002). Technology, science and preservice teachers: Creating a culture of technology savvy elementary teachers. In D. Willis, J. Price & N. Davis (Eds.), Proceedings of SITE 2002--Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1422-1426). Nashville, Tennessee, USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved March 28, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/6757.
© 2002 AACE